Meaningful no more
We need to have an honest talk about the current state of cryptocurrency. I have been a longtime enthusiast for crypto and blockchain technology overall. The potential it provides for decentralized computing can't be denied. I also think that there are current examples of crypto projects that provided genuine utility and value to the marketplace. However not only has crypto attracted a significant amount of negative press in recent months, but I have observed a wider cultural shift taking place over the last couple of years. Cryptocurrency has always been the home of the extreme, the paranoid, Libertarians, and anyone that feared the extent to which The Man controlled our lives. However, as the popularity of cryptocurrency grows we have seen a shift in how the culture treats itself. No longer is it a single brick in the foundation of a free and decentralized internet. It is treated as the final cure to all our problems. It is sold as a be-all-end-all, and it is being shoehorned into every new tech project anybody can possibly find a use for. The culture has become flooded with a mix of grifters, and "investment gurus". One search for "Crypto" on Youtube betrays just what the movement has become. We have allowed them to co-opt the term web3 away from us, and change its meaning to an absolutely asinine, overbuilt, and nonsensical crypto co-processing network. Greed and profiteering dominate the culture. The same level of idiotic posturing that happens over at internet shitholes like /biz/ and WSB. It's no longer a tech to believe in, it's an asset to hold.
The Consequences
With this shift in attitude has come a shift in attention. And this increase in attention has caused a huge influx in people that think they can get rich quick. And where there is the fool, so will be the con. We have seen a huge influx in the sheer volume of absolutely worthless and ridiculous "Crypto" projects. These cancers have always existed, but now with the endorsement of incompetent, and idiotic celebrities any old nitwit, can copy-paste some code and host their very own cyberpunk dystopian grift. The social (Not to mention environmental) consequences of this are significant and have attracted the attention of The Powers that Be. There is a name for when this happens, it's called a speculative bubble, and don't fool yourself it will pop. How many of these projects do you think generate any money outside of investments? How many of them have a utility that isn't handled by a more established, more dominant alternative. How many of them fill niches that are actually improved by the presence of a blockchain? We have seen this happen before, and we will see the consequences.
What I Will do
As of today, I will no longer be accepting cryptocurrency donations, to be perfectly frank I don't want to be associated with it anymore. It's a huge pain in the ass tax-wise anyway. I accept one-time donations through Ko-Fi, which is a service I can wholeheartedly recommend. Maybe one day the wallet addresses will return, but until the culture as a whole takes itself more seriously, and stops acting like it's something it's not, It just doesn't have any value to me.